“Italy’s tourism minister has demanded that Apple remove the ‘offensive’ What Country app from its online store after the travel guide described the Italy as the home of ‘pizza, the Mafia and scooters,'” Nick Squires reports for The Telegraph.

“The application, which can be downloaded to iPhones, iPads and iPods, characterises each nation with words and images; Italy is summed up with a road sign which reads ‘Mafia parking only,'” Squires reports. “Britain is characterised by ‘tea, weird sense of humour, football hooligans and rain,’ while Germany is summed up with ‘beer, discipline and autobahns.’ China is reduced to ‘overpopulation, kung fu, Great Wall, Tibet and tea ceremony,’ while the most defining characteristics of the US are ‘melting pot, hamburger and the American dream.'”

“The tourism minister, Michela Vittoria Brambilla, condemned the app as an affront to Italians’ dignity, describing it as ‘offensive and unacceptable,'” Squires reports. “She instructed government lawyers to take legal action against Apple and demanded that the application be removed from its iTunes online store. ‘Italy is a beacon in the world for its history, culture and style. I cannot allow our country to be discredited by having it represented by a criminal organisation,’ the minister said.”

MacDailyNews Take: Makes us long for the days when people could laugh at themselves and government servants worried more about doing meaningful things than exploiting cheap political angles.

• When you’re writing these things, you’re in a room making each other laugh, you really have very little sense of political correctness or incorrectness. This is a question that Europe tends to ask and America doesn’t. – Mike Myers

• The notion of political correctness declares certain topics, certain expressions, even certain gestures, off-limits. What began as a crusade for civility has soured into a cause of conflict and even censorship. – George H. W. Bush